Rex organization files law suit over trademark dispute

The School of Design, operating as the Rex Organization, filed suit yesterday in United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against a California-based liquor distributor, "King REX Spirits, Inc.," and its president, Sal Ortiz, for infringement of the Rex Organization's trademarks through the company's marketing and promotional activities and sales of its new "King Rex" alcohol products.

The lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief against the company for its unauthorized and misleading representation, identification, affiliation, connection and association of its "King REX Spirits" products and advertising with the Rex Organization's iconic trademarks, trade names and brand images and symbols, which have distinguished the New Orleans Mardi Gras organization since it began parading as the acknowledged "King of Carnival" in 1872.

The lawsuit claims specifically that Rex Spirits, Inc., produces and markets vodka, rum and bourbon products under the name "King REX," the packaging, marketing and promotion of which is replete with symbols and descriptions of the customs, traditions, trademarks, images and historical references of the Rex Organization. Such infringements unlawfully assume the Rex Organization's identity in order to sell the company's products and confuse the public, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit cites numerous examples of trademark infringement in which King REX Spirits willfully associates itself with the Rex Organization, including promotional language in which it actively affiliates itself with REX by calling itself the "Monarch of Merriment" and "King of Carnival," two of the Rex Organization's most well-established and publically recognized monikers.